Systems Analysis of Light Alkane Resources for Fuels and Petrochemicals Manufacture

It has recently been proposed (Ridha et al., 2018) that natural gas liquids (NGLs), which may occur in significant amounts when produced from shale resources, may be converted through dehydrogenation and oligomerization to liquid hydrocarbons suitable as transportation fuels. This will open competing markets for NGLs, which are currently used as feedstock for petrochemicals manufacture (through cracking to ethylene), marketed directly as fuel (propane, butane), or exported. Moreover, the Ridha et al. (2018) technology may potentially be operated to produce significant amounts of olefins for non-fuel applications, thus competing with crackers.

To assess the impact of this technology in the fuels and petrochemicals industry, a network model of the industry has been developed. Models of chemical manufacturing networks originated with Stadtherr and Rudd (1976, 1978) and many iterations of the original industry model have been constructed. Recently, the model framework and material flows have been updated by DeRosa and Allen (2015, 2016) to examine the impacts of shifts in feedstocks from petroleum fractions to NGLs and to study the impact of new aromatics production technology. In this presentation, modifications to this model are described, including the introduction of geospatial resolution. The model is applied to study scenarios involving the introduction of new technologies for processing light alkanes, such as that suggested by Ridha et al. (2018).

References

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